There's no denying it, these bloggers are bound to make you jealous. Whether it's their guts, their energy or their tan you admire, overseas volunteers have got plenty to share with you about their remarkable work in fascinating countries. Read on to find out what you could be missing.

All | Ashley | Natalie | David | Sheila | Jonathan | James | Abi | Fiona | Community_Action_International | Project Mongolia | Sarah | Emily | Dana | Selina | Lucy | Hannah | Sally | Lucille

Monday Sep 13, 2010

Dancing from the Knee Down

The 26^th March was the beginning of my last weekend in South Africa and me and another volunteer were the remaining duo, because we had been in the house for such a long time we were 'the two originals' and we were determined to make our last weekend the same fun as the first, ten weeks ago when a completely different group of people were bonding over rugby games and mental climbs up mountains.

Going to a reggae night at a small place called The Meeting Room, the only way I can describe the dancing is from the knee down, the place was literally like a house, the lounge had a few couches scattered around and a little area for a stage, the kitchen was just that, with a couple of people giving out drinks and making some food from whatever they had in the cupboards. I'm guessing it wouldn't be found in your typical guide books and was tucked away in Muzenburg which was pretty dead for night life. The band were true rastorvarians c singing reggae music. By the end of the night everyone was dancing – a lot, like me pretty poorly but everyone was having fun with each other even though we had only just met. It was something that I will think of as a one off experience.

On our last night we went to Mama Africa's, it's this quirky restaurant filled with homemade or painted decorations in true African style, it has a huge chandelier made out of cola bottles and everything is totally unique. The bar staff are the happiest and most welcome I have met and the cooking is as the name suggests – Mama Africa's; it is true African cooking. I ate Bobotie, a traditional dish of the country made of sweet curried mince and fruit...verrry nice! The band was made up of acoustic instrumental pieces and a mix of opera singers and funky dancers and it sets the whole theme for the night. After that we managed to get on the list to a club round the corner which was decked out with amazing dancers and our group ended up doing mini dance battles which were a lot of fun (if not slightly embarrassing!) with lots of weird and wonderful people ( one who was imitating a cat)...it was very memorable.

This is going to be my last blog about my time in South Africa, the trip was the scariest thing I have ever done but I am so proud to have seen the country and even prouder to have been a part of those children's lives. Getting back to the reality of life in the UK, a full time job in a supermarket and the internet and tv reality shows wasn't easy to take, but it is much more bearable because I know that my time in South Africa was worthwhile and I learnt so much and had such strange but beautiful experiences with the other volunteers.

I am starting at University in two weeks to study biomedical science, I am not sure what I want to do although I want to work in healthcare and I know that I want travelling to be a big part of my life, and volunteering with it.

Since my trip I have completed a TEFL course to enable me to teach English overseas and hope to visit Vietnam next summer to make use of this and to revisit work with special needs children.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and hopefully I might blog again on the website.

 

Posted by Natalie ( 1:22 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 24, 2010

'Our Free South Africa 1994'

“They are my friends”

The man stood in front of me was a middle aged man with a peaceful attitude, he said that he lived his life with a belief in reconciliation, he was inspired by Gandhi who said that he wanted to seek reconciliation and friendship with each of his opponents. It was kind of appropriate to refer to a man who had spent many years in South Africa and became inspired to fight for equality after suffering the discriminations of Indians and Black South African’s in the country during his time there.

The friends he spoke of were guards, on an island off the coast of South Africa, the guards who isolated political activists who were brave and passionate about freeing their country from the racial segregation of apartheid.

To listen to a man who had no grudges against people who had been a part of taking away his basic human rights and isolating him because of his beliefs was really admirable.

Robben Island was an ‘attraction’ I was never enthusiastic about visiting during my time in South Africa, more because of ignorance I think, I never knew its significance – I had little knowledge in terms of the country’s history, not even understanding the term Apartheid. I visited the Island with other volunteers during my final week and having been there it became the day that meant the most to me of my time in the country.  Driving around the island listening to a speaker who had a great knowledge of the Island’s history I found myself scribbling dates and names down to allow me to research more when I got home, he asked for the different countries, which we came from and linked each of our origins to the island that made you understand its importance in history.

Looking into Nelson Mandela’s cell was an experience I won’t forget but I honestly valued the speakers insights a lot more, I vaguely remember an episode of ANTM when two models argue over who gets to open the cell during a visit to South Africa and I think they missed the most importance insight into the island.

I could never begin to understand what the prisoners went through but the visit made me respect South Africa as a free country, I bought a t-shirt on my final day stating: 'Our Free South Africa 1994' and I knew I had learnt something great during my trip and I appreciate that a lot.

Posted by Natalie ( 6:04 PM )
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Tuesday Aug 10, 2010

A surreal memory of an oak tree

Half way through the trip I went along the Garden Route,  which is the the stretch of land along the South Eastern coast of South Africa. I went with four other volunteers with the company Marula Travel.

The first day was a lot of travelling, but this was my favourite day of the tour, because it was like travelling through a lot of different countries, the views were amazing and the sights I saw through the window of the minibus had to be one of my favourite parts of the whole trip. We stopped off at a farm during the day, where we went on a ride along the lake, it was a deserted area, and the boat was more like a raft. The man and his dog manning the boat, they served us food, homemade pumpkin pie, homemade chicken pie...basically more food than even I could manage...I am known for my large appetite. We rode along with our legs lying in the water. It was a lot of fun.

On the first night we had reached Mossel Bay, and stayed in a backpackers. We got a cheap meal nearby and played in a kids playground at the back of a restaurant, until the actual children showed up and we had to leave!  

The next day driving along some road – I have no clue where, it was a bit surreal because we were looking for an oak tree – or a tree that looked like an oak tree. The reason  was because it was the place where we would find a track down to a rock pool. The track was pretty nonexistent, and consisted of lots of rocks and scrapes along the way, but the rock pool was amazing, in the middle of nowhere swimming among murky moss (and I really don’t know what else) was a lot of fun!

We then visited a reserve where we went on a quad bike safari, the safari itself wasn’t too impressive because we had been on a previous safari which was one of the best around and this one was limited in its funds and land, the owner was so enthusiastic for visitors and the accommodations were beautiful but he had little custom and was struggling with his dream, which was really hard to see. It had so much potential but lack of advertising and money was really frustrating for him. A few weeks later our guide found out that he had sold up and it was under new management.

The weekend was capped off going and watching Izzy one of the volunteers, doing the world highest bungee jump, I wanted to...I really did...hmmm, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, but later that afternoon I did do a skydive, I text my mum about ten minutes before the jump telling her and then went up in a plane and jumped out. I have a serious phobia of roller coasters, which all my friends have given me a lot of stick over now I’ve jumped out of a plane. I was rewarded for being so brave by breaking my hand on the landing which then cost me 1500R to fix, basically £150 I didn’t have. But it’s a story to tell!

Posted by Natalie ( 6:33 PM )
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Saturday Jul 10, 2010

Sinethemba Special Needs Care Unit

"In a lot of African countries getting a child with a disability is considered to be a curse" *

 It is this cultural attitude, which makes development of special needs funding in Africa of such importance.

Along with economical and legislative restrictions traditional attitudes towards having a child with disabilities has meant a troubled past in the area.

Sinethemba Special Care Unit, is a school for special needs children up to the age of eighteen, I chose the placement because disability is something that I had never worked with and sometimes is too easy for people to ignore, this was highlighted to me when it was ranked least popular out of the 40 projects in South Africa offered by the company. It's unfair because the children I met whilst I was there are as equally deserving as any other child.

The project was run by a previous volunteer after seeing the need for progression of special needs funding and availability of resources in South Africa, the school is a credit to her, it receives a high level of interest from various companies and has a lot of funding as a result. Despite wanting to learn more about special needs during the project, I never got around to it, because I spent all my time running around after the most energetic children I have known. There were so many characters; Leo who would pull your hair, eat sand, and get away with anything because it was impossible to be mad at him, Inathi who we once found underneath his wheelchair, another boy had been pushing him around and it had toppled over, he was sat smiling, I couldn't believe he hadn't cried, he just found it funny. Sesethu, eight going on eighty, shouting at you in Koso, pointing her finger at you in frustration annoyed that you were stood smiling at her in amusement.

The hardest part about working at the school was the limited effect that I could have on the children's learning, when other volunteers from placements in mainstream school would come home and talk about how they had taught the children numbers and colours, I would be thankful if the children could remember and pronounce my name the next day.  It took me a while to be grateful for the little steps that the children took whilst I was there. My favorite moment was during my last week, when a young boy at the project said his name for the first time to me during a horse riding trip. It may seem like a small step but it was big for Bukho. It made me smile.

* Quoted from http://www.isec2000.org.uk/abstracts/papers_g/grol_1.htm

Posted by Natalie ( 6:31 PM )
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Thursday Jun 03, 2010

Amazingly disasterous

"Five beautiful ladies, which shall I kill first?"

This pretty much sums up my first day in Cape Town; uncomfortable conversations and random situations.

A rambling local greeted us when we got off the train in Cape Town Station offering someone on the phone '10,000Rand for the girl on the left'. He smiled at us giggling, and we laughed nervously back. I realised later that he was simply making fun of the European view of the 'murder capital' that after ten weeks I found to have a little less substance than originally suggested to me. It was people who had never travelled who told me about the stereotypes of Cape Town and South Africa in general and after my trip I think their views to be a little subjective.

Our trek up Table Mountain fitted into the unplanned aspect of the day, we began in the early morning on what should have been a two hour hike up the mountain and emerged six hours later exhausted, bright red and defeated having failed to reach the top. Hung-over from the night before we had set off onto the Pipe track route and cut across onto the Diagonal Route, three hours into the hike we hadn't seen anyone for at least an hour and we were on what can only be described as cliff top edges. One girl was praying to God sat with a Chanel shoulder bag and designer glasses on, one girl was climbing in bare-feet having abandoned her flip-flops a good while ago and another panicking trying to recall emergency numbers!!

Having said that it was a fantastic accident, because the views were unreal and sitting on the mountain with no one else around eating basics crackers and bananas was actually pretty amazing.

After the mountain we went to Camps bay, which is a hot tourist area, unfortunately being a group of backpackers dressed head to toe in 'scrags' and sweaty and bedraggled from a trek up a mountain got us disapproving looks. I wouldn't say the area was a true beauty of South Africa but it is worth a visit, if only to see hundreds of visitors crying in agony from cramp that the literally freezing water promises.

One problem that we found was that Cape Town trains finish at around 7pm unknown to us, we got to the station at 7.05pm and missed our last train, we found ourselves cramming eight people into a six person taxi, which the taxi drivers encourage if only for the big fare they can gather. This is not advisable as we found ourselves pulled over by the police at 9pm in the middle of nowhere. The taxi driver got a 600Rand fine and increased the fare!

The night ended in typical fashion being pulled over in a taxi by the police in the middle of nowhere after we missed the last train, nine of us crammed into a six person taxi avoided the disapproving glances of the officers. I inappropriately laughed out loud finding the whole day hysterical and amazing because it was my first weekend in Cape Town and I will always remember its disastrously brilliant events!!

FYI we returned the next week and made it to the top and walked through a cloud: highly advised activity.

 

Posted by Natalie ( 3:27 PM )
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Monday May 10, 2010

Life in a Township - Please read now now!

My project was working with special needs children in a care unit called Sinethemba meaning 'we have hope'. The school was opened recently, however previously had been located in another township a few minutes away called Ocean View. Though more 'built up' than other townships I saw, Ocean View has many social problems, drug addiction is high in the area with a lot of parents passing their addictions onto young children and there is a lot of anti social behaviour. Graffiti and robbery was common on the school site and hence the owners made the decision to move it to the sister township Masiphumellele, a black township. 'Masi' was seemingly more deprived than Ocean View in the sense that shacks and poor housing was more extreme in the area, however during the time I spent there it was also very colourful and full of life and in this way I think a better site for the school.

I didn't actually realise I would be working in a township until my first day (it was a little late by then to turn back) and I admit I was extremely worried about how I would be received by the inhabitants. Crime was also high in the area with other volunteers I worked with at one point being approached a knifepoint for their valuables. From the first day I carried a purse, which clipped on the inside of my trousers and always dressed conservatively. I think this was important both to avoid any attention and also as a sign of respect. Unemployment is extreme in the township with the majority of people out of work and so to walk around with hundred pound camera's and lots of money is not the brightest idea. On the very odd occasion I took my camera into the school the staff didn't understand how to use them or even which way to hold them, it is a luxury they don't have the chance to experience.

However I don't want people to be put off working in a township because it was one of the main highlights of my trip, there is no better way to see culture then spending time with local people. From the taxi buses, with their personalities (e.g. sexilicious!), drivers with pink hair and funky designs and rickety old vans disguised as taxi's, the people who are so laid back and on African Time, 'now' means any time in the future, 'now now' means NOW, and the general life and music within the area its an amazing place to be.

Where the local's are concerned some may stare for the first couple of times you are there- it is very uncommon for white people to travel by mini bus taxi (I often received comments such as you're brave) let alone enter a township, but the people who live there will welcome you and look out for you and I was there for ten weeks and enjoyed every day.

 

 

Posted by Natalie ( 5:18 PM )
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Monday Apr 26, 2010

An unplanned adventure

In September last year I booked a volunteering trip to South Africa, in January this year I travelled from Manchester-Paris-Johannesburg-Cape Town. It was a spontaneous gap year adventure, which I put absolutely no thought into. Each person I explained my trip to would give me a concerned look  when they realized I would be travelling 'alone' and this only increased when they learned I was going to be based in South Africa. My answer was not to think about about travelling somewhere I had read was one of the 'murder capitals' of the world. I did no research and went into the experience blind, but I think this was mainly because if I thought too much about it I might back out. However in hindsight the misconceptions and ignorance which surrounds South Africa is immense. I strongly believe it is one of the most cultural, unexpected and misunderstood places I will have ever visited.

My name is Natalie and I am currently on a gap year after finishing college where I studied Biology, Chemistry and Maths, simply because not knowing what I wanted to do with my life studying Maths and Science seemed like a reasonable option. At college the idea of a gap year was something many people didn't even entertain, it was expected that everyone would go from school to college to university to full time work. I wanted to take a year out to spend time volunteering on a more permanent basis and on a project that I could commit my time fully to, I also wanted to travel and do something which for me was out of character to build my confidence and have fun before studying a three year degree. In September I am studying Biomedical Science at Newcastle University, I'm not sure where that will take me in terms of a job but I'm interested in human anatomy so it seemed like a good place to start

Despite travelling alone, being based in a volunteer house with other lone travellers all working on various projects within Cape Town made the experience a bit less intimidating. The people I met and stories I have because of them was honestly probably one of the best aspects of my trip and I don't think I would have had half the experience I had without them. I booked my trip with a non-charitable organisation called I-to-I that places volunteers in Africa, Asia, Australia and South America on projects based in disadvantaged communities. My project was in a township called Masiphumelelle working in a Special Needs school, during my orientation I was told by my supervisor that disability in Africa had been related to witchcraft, it was something sinister and 'un-normal', the school began when a previous volunteer saw the poor investment in special needs care and wanted to build a learning environment for the children who had been born with a condition that forces all kinds of restrictions on their lives.

 

Posted by Natalie ( 11:48 AM )
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